| Saturday, 31 January 2009, 7:12 am Tags: Google, Internet |
I guess I know what the topic will be on the radio show today.
UPDATE: Google’s response is here. Seems that someone left a slash ‘/’ on a line by itself in the list of spyware sites – which means all sites were flagged.The problem occurred from 6:30 to 7:25 Pacific Saturday morning.
This is an incredibly stupid error and shows how vulnerable the net is. Also, where do I turn off phishing filtering in my Google results?
| Friday, 30 January 2009, 6:42 pm Tags: |
Everyone knows these lists are silly, but I do want to thank Forbes for putting me back on the list of Top 25 Web Celebs. I was #17 in 2007, dropped off in 2008, and made it by the skin of my teeth this time. Who knows why. Probably because they know I’ll link to them here.
Congratulations to my fellow TWiTs who also made the list, Kevin Rose, Jason Calacanis, and John C. Dvorak. I think we’ll do a TWiT this week featuring just people on the list. (Eight out of the 25 have appeared on TWiT shows at one time or another.) Champagne and caviar are on me.
| Friday, 30 January 2009, 8:52 am Tags: |
I’ve installed the Beta of Windows 7 nearly everywhere. OK I still have a few installs of Vista, and even XP, around, but more and more I’m dissatisfied with these older versions of Windows — 7 just seems to run better and look better. Even in beta I think it’s the best version of Windows since the late, lamented 2000. That’s one of the reasons I started the (admittedly tongue in cheek) “Release Windows 7” campaign, despite mocking from my friend, Paul Thurrott.
So far, Windows 7 has worked with everything I’ve thrown at it, with one significant exception.
The 64-bit version doesn’t work with Google’s Chrome browser. I don’t really need Chrome, but I use it to turn the Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Gmail (all of which I do need) into desktop icons. I’m sure Google will fix this soon, and I can survive without it.
But now comes the news that Windows 7’s UAC-lite doesn’t work very well. Turns out malware can turn it off without any notification. Nice. Microsoft has, once again, compromised security for convenience. I’m sure we’ll talk about this on Windows Weekly. (We’re recording at 3p Eastern today on TWiT Live or subscribe on iTunes).
Fortunately, there’s an easy fix: turn UAC up. Click the Action Center flag in your system tray, open the Action Center, then Change UAC Settings. 
Move the slider up to the top of the range and you’re done. Phew!
Now I can go back to my campaign to release Snow Leopard!
| Monday, 26 January 2009, 10:56 pm Tags: BMUG, Macintosh |
In the earliest days of personal computing users had to fend for themselves. Computer companies were too small, or too indifferent, to support individual users. So we huddled together, supporting each other through the trials and vicissitudes of PC ownership, in something called “user groups.”
I remember traveling to Berkeley of a Thursday evening for meetings of one of the biggest, best, and most unruly of the user groups, BMUG: the Berkeley Macintosh User Group. I didn’t go to every meeting, but I always enjoyed the unruly atmosphere, the feisty treatment of the company marketeers who dared address the group, and the Chinese dinners afterward. I even left them my Mac BBS, MacQueue, when I took it down in 1986.
BMUG hasn’t met in years, but one of its stalwarts, Raines Cohen, is planning a reunion in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Mac’s release. This is one party I wouldn’t want to miss.
BMUGgers unite for one (last?) Thursday meeting, this Thursday at the Hillside Club in Berkeley. RSVP on Facebook or at upcoming.yahoo.com. I hope to see you there!
| Wednesday, 21 January 2009, 7:55 am Tags: inaug09, obama |
…was technically not Barack Obama:
Therefore, from 12:00 noon until about 12:01 pm today, the President of the USA was Condoleeza Rice.
link: Remember When Biden Was President? – City Desk – Washington City Paper
But wasn’t yesterday amazing?
| Friday, 16 January 2009, 6:18 pm Tags: Interviews, scobleizer, Video |
Part two of my conversation with Robert Scoble for his FastCompany.tv…
Nice shot of the Emmy. Thanks for the interview, Robert!
| Thursday, 15 January 2009, 9:50 pm Tags: Funny, Video |
Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) from Joe Nicolosi
| Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 10:20 pm Tags: Appearances, Podcasts, scobleizer, Video |
Robert Scoble is like the weather. Everyone complains about him, but no one can do anything about him. (I kid.)
Part one of the interview I did with Scoble for FastCompany.tv is online. Part two should be up tomorrow. If you missed my MMacworld keynote, many of the things I talked about appear in this show…
Man do I need a haircut.
The rest of the keynote made its way into this podcast interview I did last night with the Weather Brains (four TV meteorologists who have a very entertaining audio show about weather).
Follow the Weatherbrains on Twitter: James Spann, JB Elliott, Brian Peters, Kevin Selle. I thank them for their hospitality.
| Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 7:29 am Tags: Facebook, facebook connect, Leoville |
I’ve turned on Facebook Connect (yes it only took a week after Amber told me about it) with the Disqus commenting system we use here. Now you can post a comment on the blog using your Facebook account for credentials. Despite all the attention Twitter gets in our neck of the digital woods, it seems to me that Facebook is building overwhelming momentum in the social media space. With 150 million plus users the network effect is really starting to kick in.
The success of Facebook also puts the lie to the widely accepted truism that Twitter competitor, FriendFeed, isn’t growing because it’s hard to use. I’d argue that Facebook is just as overwhelming to the new user but it rewards his or her initial struggle immediately and palpably due to the size of its network. Twitter succeeds for the same reason. It’s not simplicity, it’s simply the number of people who use the service.
Give our new Facebook Connect-powered commenting system a try and let me know what you think.
| Monday, 5 January 2009, 10:52 pm Tags: Twitter |
This morning at around 9am Pacific “under 50″ of the most-followed Twitter users lost control of their accounts, including Barack Obama, CNN’s Rick Sanchez, Fox News, and me.
Both my password and the reset email address were modified. As far as I know the hacker didn’t post on my account, but Fox News tweeted “Bill O’Reilly is gay” and Rick Sanchez announced that he was taking the day off because he was on crack. Twitter was quick to remove these spurious posts and block the hacker. But what really happened?
I got this explanation from Twitter’s John Adams, @netik, via Qik on my iPhone at the Tweetup at the 21st Amendment tonight. According to John, the hacker gained access to Twitters admin tools.
Scary.
Swag
